Black-faced Grosbeak
Caryothraustes poliogaster
Rather chunky, social bird of humid evergreen forest and edge in tropical lowlands and foothills. Usually in small and often noisy groups (at times up to 50 birds), moving at middle to upper levels in fruiting trees; not usually with mixed-species feeding flocks. Sexes look alike, with subtly attractive plumage: mustard-yellow head and breast with black face and blue-gray belly. Calls are buzzy splutters and whistles.
Identification
The adult black-faced grosbeak is 16.5 cm long, weighs 36 g, and has a heavy, mainly black, bill. It has a black face, yellow head, neck and breast, and olive back, wings and tail. The rump and belly are grey. Immatures are duller and have duskier face markings. The vocalisations include sharp chip or tweet calls, buzzes and whistles, and the song is a musical whistled cher chi weet, cher chir weet, cher chi chuweet.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Caryothraustes poliogaster
- Authority
- (Du Bus de Gisignies, 1847)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Cardinalidae
- Genus
- Caryothraustes
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds

Crimson Finch
Neochmia phaeton
Elegant, long-tailed finch, adult male brown above, intense crimson below, with a cherry-red face and small pale spots on the side of the chest. Birds in New Guinea and Cape York with white belly, those elsewhere in Australia with black. Female duller, with only red face. Juvenile mostly brownish with dark bill but note long tail. Star Finch has shorter tail, greener plumage. Inhabits tall grass areas, especially with Pandanus (palm-like tree with leaves attached in a corkscrew pattern).

Scaly-crowned Babbler
Malacopteron cinereum
Small, dull, brownish babbler. Pale underparts. Faintly scaled crown is orangish and sets it apart from the dark-crowned but otherwise fairly similar Sooty-capped Babbler. Birds north of the Malay Peninsula and southern Thailand have a bicolored crown, with chestnut on the front half and dark on the back. Inhabits lowland and foothill forests, often in wet areas. Forages in noisy flocks, giving rapid-fire series of ticking notes.

Pied Monarch
Arses kaupi
Small black-and-white flycatcher found in wetter forests of northern Queensland. White underparts except for black breast band, with black mask, tail, and wings, blue eyering, and back back with white band. Rear of head has large puffy white collar (like a space helmet). Compare Frill-necked Monarch, which lacks black breast band and has more black under chin. Forages treecreeper-style, moving up and down tree trunks looking for insects in the bark. Calls include a fast repeated whistle.
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